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Mobile props up broadband market

17 June 2008

The number of people using mobile broadband services has rocketed by 46 percent since the end of last year.

That's according to ComReg's quarterly report for the first three months of 2008, which reveals there are now 186,038 mobile broadband subscribers in Ireland. Mobile broadband was the largest contributor to new broadband growth in the first quarter, with over 58,000 customers added during the period, followed by DSL, which gained over 37,000 customers.

Overall, there were 991,970 broadband subscribers at the end of March 2008, with DSL accounting for 586,989 (59 percent) of that total. Cable broadband is also experiencing strong growth: take-up jumped by 7.5 percent since the fourth quarter of 2007 and a significant 37.6 percent over the year-ago quarter. Cable broadband subscribers numbered 88,647 by the end of March 2008.

Eircom's share of the broadband market has eroded steadily since the beginning of 2006, when it held a 54.2 percent share of the market. At the end of the first quarter of 2008 it had a 41.4 percent slice of the pie. DSL provided by other alternative operators (OAOs) using either Bitstream or LLU represented 18.3 percent of the market, while the remaining 40.3 percent was held by operators on alternative broadband platforms including cable broadband, fixed wireless, fibre, satellite and mobile broadband.

The former incumbent has also seen its share of the fixed line phone market drop. It now holds 68 percent of that market, down from 70 percent in the first quarter of 2007 and 69 percent at the end of 2007. Increased competition from other operators is the key factor in Eircom's market share decline.

Ireland now ranks fifth in Europe when it comes to mobile subscriptions. With a penetration rate of 121 percent, we join the UK and Austria on the fifth spot, just behind Germany with its 122 percent penetration rate, and ahead of the EU average of 118 percent. Italy, with a penetration rate of 151 percent, holds the top spot. There are approximately 5.7 million mobile phone subscriptions in Ireland.

Although Vodafone still has the lion's share of the mobile market, its stake has been declining over the past couple of years. Its current market share is 43.4 percent, while O2, which also saw its share slip, commands 31.9 percent. On the flip side, Meteor has seen its slice of the market grow to 18.7 percent, while Three Ireland now holds a 6 percent share.

www.enn.ie